Modding with Mapbase

This is a general-purpose page for both the process of making existing mods begin running on Mapbase as well as the process of creating a new mod using Mapbase from the start.

File structure

There are two distribution/usage schemes for running on Mapbase:

• Drawing from external folders
  • This would involve your mod drawing directly from the Mapbase mod folders. This is the easiest and most balanced way of distributing a mod running on Mapbase. It's recommended that you include the latest Mapbase build with your installation to avoid confusion, but that will bloat the mod package's file and you may need to update it when Mapbase updates.
• Completely built-in
  • This would involve merging Mapbase's assets directly with your mod, making your mod fully independent. This will bloat the mod's package file (and a user's hard drive if they have Mapbase installed separately) and may need to be kept up with Mapbase updates, but it is the only option for mods going on Steam and is the least confusing and convenient installation method for users.

Drawing from external folders

Mod Templates

Mapbase's ModDB page contains two lightweight mod templates for creating mods based off of HL2 or EP1/EP2. They are set up to use the basic dependency scheme (draw from adjacent Mapbase folders) and do not contain many files. You can use them to start your mod or see how gameinfo.txt's Mapbase dependency works.

Completely built-in

This is the more difficult and less common approach, but it allows your mod to run fully independently of Mapbase and eliminates any possibility for confusion or error involving the additional mapbase_ folders.

This is usually done by copying (not extracting) Mapbase's VPKs. Here are some instructions for copying and organizing Mapbase's VPKs in this way for your mod:

1. First, you will need a place to put the VPKs. You can create a mapbase folder in your mod's root folder for this. (e.g. sourcemods/mod_name/mapbase).
2. Inside of your new folder, you will need additional subfolders to separate Mapbase's content VPKs, reflecting the mapbase_shared, mapbase_hl2, mapbase_episodic scheme. This is often done by naming the folders after Mapbase's folders, but without the mapbase_ part (e.g. shared, hl2, and episodic)
3. Now copy Mapbase's VPKs to your new subfolders. These VPKs are found in the release build. (e.g. go to mapbase_episodic/content and copy its contents to mod_name/mapbase/episodic, etc.) (Note: mapbase_shared/shared_misc/bin can be merged with your own mod's root bin folder)
4. If your mod is not using its own code, copy Mapbase's DLLs in the mod of your choice (mapbase_episodic, etc.) to your own mod's bin folder. (discord_rpc.dll and game_shader_dx9.dll count too)
5. In gameinfo.txt, add the following commands to where you would normally mount Mapbase externally (see the mod templates for reference):

            game+mod            |gameinfo_path|mapbase/episodic/*
            game+mod            |gameinfo_path|mapbase/hl2/*
            game+mod            |gameinfo_path|mapbase/shared/shared_content_v7_0.vpk

Your mod should now be able to run independently of Mapbase's original sourcemod folders. You may need to update these copied files yourself whenever Mapbase is updated.

Assets

Materials (.vmt files)

Mapbase runs with modified versions of Source 2013's shaders. These modified versions are supposed to fully replace the original shaders, but because of in-engine caveats and Mapbase's choice of implementation, each .vmt file must manually point to the new shaders. HL2/EP1/EP2's materials are converted already, but all of a mod's custom materials should be changed to use the new shaders. Not converting them could make them look weird alongside the converted HL2 materials, and they won't use any of the shader benefits.

Don't worry about converting them manually! There is a "multi-tool" program available here which has a batch VMT conversion tool. You can use it to convert entire materials directories.

Coding

If you are using an existing mod with existing custom code, it must be a Git repo that is forked from the original Source SDK 2013 repository run by Valve in order to merge Mapbase's code automatically. Code based off of .ZIP downloads or other methods unrelated to Git cannot take advantage of Git to merge Mapbase's code. If you do not know how to use Git, or you are not aware of what Git is, I highly recommend reading up on it if you are a programmer.

If your repo is not eligible for automatically merging Mapbase's code, you will need to either manually bring Mapbase's code to your repo or bring all of your code to Mapbase's repo. I highly recommend moving your own code to a Git-based fork of Source 2013 so you could not only do the automatic Mapbase merge, but also take advantage of Git's other features.

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If you are creating a new mod that is going to use custom code, I highly recommend cloning this repo with Git rather than downloading it as a .ZIP. This will allow you to update your code when Mapbase updates and allows you to take advantage of Git's other benefits. If you do not know how to use Git, or you are not aware of what Git is, I highly recommend reading up on before starting.

When the repo is cloned or downloaded, you will be able to work as normal as if it were regular Source SDK 2013. DLLs placed in your mod's bin folder will override stock Mapbase DLLs if it draws from the regular Mapbase folders. However, you need to have a copy of discord_rpc.dll in the same folder as client.dll at all times. This is a limitation with the way it is implemented and cannot be fixed easily.

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When Mapbase updates, you can use Git to pull from this repo's master branch.

More Help

If you require more assistance in setting up your mod to use Mapbase, or want more details on some of the options available to you, join Mapbase's Discord server and/or contact Blixibon on Discord, ModDB, or Steam.